Happy Independence Day in America!!! Everyone should go eat a big yummy American hamburger for me, since I can't eat one. Sad, but that will probably be the first thing I'll eat when I get home haha. Last night was our first English Course that we had in Capo d'Orlando, the city thats an hour away where Giuseppe lives. Can I just tell about the awesomeness of this experience...because we did publicity for a total of 3 times...yesterday all day leading up to it (our publicity involved handing out a million little handouts to people and going into stores and asking if we could hang up a flyer), and then 2 days last week just for a couple hours. And then yesterday I read in a book that "You should do publicity for at least 4 weeks before you start English Course"...whoops. Haha. So I was afraid that no one was going to come! So yesterday doing pubblicità...all day...it was really hot and humid. At like 5 someone called us about English Course and I got so excited because I felt like the work we were doing paid off (just by the ONE phone call because someone actually used the flyer haha). This guy ended up coming, and said he was interested in teh English Course but also the religion behind it too. MIRACLE!!! So in total we had 11 people come to English Course!!! MIRACLE!! I'm so serious...and several of these people said they might be interested in learning more about the church. The course was fun, we had made American cookies and flags before and had a cultural experience with them for the 4th of July and it was very fun :) :) :)
We went to a Catholic mass on Sunday night for a few minutes (just passing by the Chiesa Madre), and the priest needs to be Mormon. He talked for a couple minutes about faith and how it needs to be active and not dormant. A lesson all of us need to learn in life...faith requires action and not just belief. That is really hard for us to understand sometimes, but when we begin to really act and SHOW our faith to Heavenly Father, I know that's when we'll receive more blessings.
On Monday I gave the training in our district meeting. I used the talk "Rise to Your Call" by Henry B. Eyring, and it applies incredibly to missionary work. But for anyone who has a calling right now, you should read it!! Big or small calling, it applies to all and give some very good reminders. It helped me a lot to absorb it as I prepared this training for my district, and I hope it helped them too.
Monday night something really funny happened. So we were in Santo Stefano, we got stood up for an appointment, so then we went and did finding and it was hot and we were tired. At like 7ish, Sorella Comollo decides to rip her skirt, pretty darn bad. Hahaha. I tried to help it the best I could, but bobby pins for my hair don't work as well and a safety pin or something. So we decided to turn it into an adventure and a teaching experience, by going to people's houses and asking them if they had a safety pin because she ripped her skirt. We got some really strange looks, and I realized that in Italy this is not a common household item like it is in America. I LOVE safety pins and can find many ways to make them useful. FInally we found some people who let us in, and there were a bunch of women that all went trying to mend my companion's skirt with safety pins haha. And then the lady who lived there was SO SWEET and she gave us gelato (to random strange girls...I love Sicily...its hot), and then let us have a little lesson with her and leave her a pamphlet. What a cool experience! It was an example of turning a negative experience into a positive one and not giving up when its extremely tempting to do that and you might have a perfectly good excuse.
Well I don't think I have any other cool funny stories from the week. I'm super excited about the way things are going here in this area...I feel like even though its summer and everyone is going to the mare ALL THE TIME, we are getting some cool successes. There's so much potential! These people are all children of God!!! Sometimes its really easy to forget that when its hot and you're tired. But I'm so grateful to be in this area of Mistretta, even though its reputation is that it's a tough place (lots of sisters don't want to serve here...), but I'm learning so much and am really feeling more enthusiasm for the work here. We're trying to change things up, adn I know that putting more emphasis on Capo d'Orlando is helping us, as well as English Course. There's lots of ways to find people :) We have transfers next week, and find out Saturday who's going and coming (there will probably be changes here...but of course I can't say for sure), so we're a little anxious, but I just have to remind myself that Heavenly Father is in charge and knows exactly where He wants every one of His missionaries to be. We'll find out what happens.
I love you all, I thank you for your prayers and support because it means a lot to me, and please pray for these people to have their hearts softened so they can move closer towards baptism. The gospel is needed by everyone. I have never been so grateful to be a member of this church as now. I KNOW IT'S TRUE.
Buon giorno di indipendenza! (I spelled that one right the first time :) )
Love, Sorella Sobeck
Independence Day pizza!!! Half capricciosa/half hot dog and french fries :)
Treated by Signore Simonetta
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